The episodes offered here are definitely essential. While some may argue that some brilliant gems are missing—season two’s “Night of the Meek”—comes to mind, and the decision not to include an of season four’s hour long episodes is a shame, my hunch is that if someone enjoys this set, they will be seeking out the full season sets (available on both Blu-ray and DVD) in the near future. Below is a brief look at each of the episodes in the set:
1.) WALKING DISTANCE (Season One)
Gig Young stars as a man walking into the town he was born in, and mysteriously finding everything intact and unchanged, despite the passage of time. Gentle, yet sad, this is Rod Serling at his most nostalgic. This episode is more representative of the scripts Sterling wrote several years earlier for shows like Kraft Television Theater, and Playhouse 90, than a typical episode of The Twilight Zone.
2.) TIME ENOUGH AT LAST (Season One)
In the first of four appearances on The Twilight Zone, Burgess Meredith appears as a bookworm who only wants to be left alone to read. After a nuclear attack, he gets his wish, albeit with a supremely cruel twist. A highly disturbing classic.
3.) THE HITCH-HIKER (Season One)
A woman’s (Inger Stevens) cross country trip is plagued by the appearance of a spectral traveler (Leonard Strong), hoping to hitch a ride.
4.) THE MONSTERS ARE DUE ON MAPLE STREET (Season One)
The terminally underrated Claude Akins is wonderful as a typical suburbanite trying to keep his neighbors from turning on each other after a UFO’s appearance causes a town-wide blackout. Written just a few years after the Army-McCarthy hearings, “Maple Street” and the paranoia depicted must have felt all too real.
5.) A STOP AT WILLOUGHBY (Season One) Rod Sterling’s favorite story from the first season features James Daly as Gart Williams, a working man on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He finds his salvation in the serene town of Willoughby, a place “where a man can slow down to a walk … and live his life full measure.”
6.) THE AFTER HOURS (Season One)
Anne Francis is lost in a department store and taken to the 9th floor, where she’s waited on by a raven-haired, marble cheeked woman who knows a bit too much about her. As it turns out, the 9th floor and the woman don’t really exist…
7.) THE HOWLING MAN (Season Two) Written by Charles Beaumont, a man encounters The Devil locked in an old monastery. A truly dark episode, this one truly gave me nightmares when I saw it on TV as a child.
8.) THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER (Season Two)
A very dystopian chiller involving a woman forced to undergo experimental treatments in an attempt to make her appear “normal.” We never see her face until the shattering conclusion Donna Douglas and Maxine Stuart guest star.
9.) NICK OF TIME (Season Two)
A young William Shatner stars as a man superstitious man who becomes fixated on a fortune-telling machine in a local diner. Creepy, but believable.
10.) THE INVADERS (Season Two)
Agnes Moorehead plays a mute woman who comes face-to-face with aliens. She finds a flying saucer, from which two small robots emerge. She fights them as best she can and eventually succeeds in destroying their ship. Written by Richard Matheson.
11.) THE OBSOLETE MAN (Season Three)
Burgess Meredith again, this time as a bookish man in a totalitarian society labeled a criminal, and therefore, obsolete. Sentenced to death, magistrate Fritz Weaver allows him to choose how he would like to die, thereby sealing his own fate. Smart and scary.
12.) IT’S A GOOD LIFE (Season Three)
Future Lost in Space star Bill Mumy stars as Anthony, a true bad seed whose psychic powers combined with his juvenile antics, have his family and town virtually held hostage. When people say or think things that displease him, they end up turned into toys, exiled to hellish cornfields or worse. This episode was remade by Joe Dante as a live-action Warner Bros. cartoon in 1982’s Twilight Zone: The Movie.
13.) THE MIDNIGHT SUN (Season Three)
Society begins to melt as Earth is thrown of its axis and begins to drift into the sun. The twist is chilling, as is the ending, featuring melting faces.
14.) TO SERVE MAN (Season Three)
Richard Kiel (Moonraker) is a “Kanamit”, nine-foot tall aliens with king-sized craniums who come to earth armed only with books titled “To Serve Man,” and an agenda to feed the world and eliminate war. They succeed, but once the U.S. government cracks their literary code, the mission takes on a softer tone.
15.) NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FEET (Season Five)
Shatner is back; this time, he suffers a breakdown aboard a jetliner when he sees a gremlin ripping apart the wing. Perfectly written by Richard Matheson, season five is a bit hit-or miss but this episode is a highlight of the entire series.
16.) LIVING DOLL (Season Five)
A fan favorite, Telly Savalas (Kojak) plays a man who treats his his wife and step-daughter like trash, while battling wits with the little girl’s chatty and lethal doll, “Talking Tina”…
17.) THE MASKS (Season Five)
A wealthy, dying man invites all the heartless vultures at his death bed to join him in a mask-wearing ceremony at Mardi Gras. If they keep his specially made masks on until midnight, they will each get to split his massive fortune upon his death. An interesting look at the ugliness in people, this episode was directed by Ida Lupino.
Presented in their original 4:3 full frame aspect ratio, the transfers look almost pristine. There are a few scratches, and dirt, but the overall picture is clear and shows off some great detail for a DVD.
Presented with its original mono track, things sound top notch. Dialogue is clear with no distortion and music is also clear.
No extras are included.
